Black & White Cookie Cake

by Megan on July 24, 2009

I’ve since revisited this cake. To see the updated post and photos click HERE.

Fairy tales happen in real life. Desserts fall in love all the time. I mean, have you seen peanut butter and chocolate together? They’ve been together forever, but you’d think they were still in their sparkle stage. Jeez. And what about chocolate and vanilla twist ice cream cones… Chocolate gets around, I guess, is the moral of those fairy tale romances, but I think with this one these two have something special.
Let me tell you a little story…

Once upon a time there was a birthday happening for a certain boy that loves black and white cookies. The truth is that is what inspired a cake remix of these delectable treats, but really why wouldn’t an amazing cookie make an equally amazing cake? I mean, who doesn’t dream of the cookie they love being the kind of thing you could serve a group of guests? Or simply cut huge slices of and enjoy on a whole new level. Anyhow, this cake is the love child of the black and white cookie and the cakey-er significant other of that scandalous cookie. This dessert is now living happily ever after in my stomach.

Line the bottom of 2 (9 inch) cake pans with buttered parchment paper. Position rack in the middle of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, mixing well.

Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until very soft and light. Beat in the vanilla, then beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Reduce the speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture, then half the buttermilk, stopping and scraping down the bowl and beater after each addition. Beat in another third of the flour, then the remaining buttermilk, stopping and scraping again. Finally, beat in the remaining flour mixture.

Scrape the bowl well with a large rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the tops.

Bake the layers for about 30 to 35 minutes, until they are well risen and firm and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean. Cool the layers in the pans on racks for 5 minutes, then unmold onto racks to finish cooling.

Stir together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl until smooth. Transfer half of icing to another bowl and stir in cocoa, adding more water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to thin to same consistency as white icing.

Directions

Ice the bottom layer half white and half black and place the top layer on top.

Frost the opposite sides of the top layer white and black so in every bite it’s like an even cakey-er black and white cookie!

*For me, as far as frostings and icings are concerned, there is never a for sure recipe. I’m always adding this and that to get it to the desired consistency. Feel free to add more powdered sugar and then more water until consistency is all you’re dreaming of.

i think it is so decadent that the king of all queens would (or should) say, “Thank ye! Thank ye! You, who has successfully created such a wonderful, crazy-wow pleasure in my mouth will now replace all of the girl-slave servants I’ve supposedly acquired, each skirt is free! Jump among the minions of cookies and some-what cakes that fell way too far apart in ze-mouth, that they shall forever end in sad, uno-oh-no!”

A local bakery (now closed) used to make a very similar cake except one layer was chocolate and one was yellow. The filling was a vanilla fluff type filling like in a Devil Dog. The entire outside of the cake including the sides was covered half in black and half in white poured fondant. I wonder how they got it to stay on the sides. I was so glad to come across your recipe. I am still trying to perfect it!

This looks awesome, wish the icing was completely covering the sides. My son and I are b&w cookie fans and tomorrow is his 16th birthday. Tonight I begin this, hopefully with at least 1/2 as good looking cake as yours.

As my husband and I were eating a black and white cookie, I asked him what kind of cake he’d like for his birthday. He said a black and white cookie cake. Thank goodness for you and your blog!!! Baked the cakes and still have to make the icing. Can’t wait to try it!

One of my good friends loves the black and white cookies (actually just the white part) and I just had the idea the other day to see if I can find a cake version of those cookies to make for his birthday. Your site was the first one to show up! I think I will definitely have to try making this! 🙂

Hi there, I am new to baking from scratch and for the past 17 years have been making “special” cakes from my step-daughter for her birthday. Since becoming a mom to twins I have started dabbling in baking more from scratch to get my twinks involved and get them to love cooking and baking alike.
My step-daughter will be 20 this year and I got the idea of trying to find a recipe for a B&W cookie cake since that is her favorite cookie. I am so excited to try this out and hope it goes over well 🙂
I do have a question though. I am wondering if it would be ok to make the cake on a Friday to serve on Sunday? And if so how would you store it? I’m sure it would be best to make it the day of however my oven is going to be occupied most of the day with a turkey cooking 🙂
Thanks!!

Hi! I was just wondering if you recommend refrigerating this cake at all? Or will it be ok being left out at room temperature? I’m going to make it for my friend’s birthday over the weekend but we won’t have it until Monday night. Any suggestions would be awesome. Thanks! 🙂

Hi there- – I just made this cake and it was fabulous! Well, I made my own yellow cake, but I used your frosting recipe. I will say that I needed much more liquid than listed above in order to get an easily spreadable, glazy consistency, so I added 1/2 tsp of water at a time and squeezed some extra lemon juice. I would also recommend using slightly less than half of the white frosting mixture to create the chocolate frosting, because that volume will increase a bit as you add the cocoa powder and additional water. It was a hit at work and several people asked me for the recipe!